The Compassion Revolution

In the first part of the essay, we sketched the economical and political historic background of the current aid system. In the second part, we looked at things in the current NGO-based aid system that are not quite optimal. In the final part, I will start addressing solutions, based on my own experience. What does impactful, effective NGO work look like? We should focus on a paradigm of collaborative, community-based aid, rather than aid delivery. How to create good conditions for people? An impactful paradigm is grassroots and not top-down. Local people should be co-creators, who, with the support of aid agencies, move towards becoming more independent and self-sustaining. Aid oughtn't be ‘pushed’ on local people. The Listening Project talks about a ‘collaborative aid system’.(1) You could also call it a community-based approach, where you strengthen local communities by building strong ties with them and giving them the support that really need. You achieve this by taking your

In the second part of this three part essay on foreign aid, I am going into the functioning of modern day NGOs, and the structural issues they are facing. I grew up in the '90s, when NGOs were presented to me as progressive, independent, trustworthy actors that would solve the problems that governments were not able to solve. They almost had an aura of invincibility around them. Having worked in this field for seven years, my view of them totally changed.  The current paradigm can be described as an 'aid delivery' system. To overcome its shortcomings we have to move beyond good intentions and focus on  a long-term and bottom-up approach. Beyond good intentions Before I start, it is important to say it is not my goal to point the finger at anyone. I do not want to blame or scapegoat any particular organization or institution. Often aid work is done with the best intentions. Yet good intentions alone are not enough. As one author on the matter says, we have to go ‘beyond good

This is the first part of a three part critique of our aid and development model. This first part of this essay is a brief look into the historical context of our current development paradigm. (1) I grew up believing that something changed after WWII, there had been a global awakening, and the start of a period marked by international collaboration and respect for human rights, advanced by such historic achievements as the founding of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the independence of former colonies. Based on these new foundations, there would be a steady progress towards, peace, freedom and equality, thanks to a process called 'development'. I am a bit older now, and have worked for nearly 7 years in this field of development. My optimism has faded, and I am starting to fear it may have been a naive childhood illusion. Has anything really fundamentally changed? Development as we know it today started after the second World War. At the end of